NY State Conservationist

8/14/2019 NY State Conservationist

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Weve talked about what it takes to build a smarter planet. Now, we aretaking the steps necessary in order to sustain this planet. Through theGreener Planet Project, we will continue to utilize data to preserve andbenefit all forms life. This is the first step towards planting a greener planet.

PLANTING A GREENER PLANET


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WINTER HIGHice-climbing in New-York... 13

BATS ON THE BRINKWhite nose disease takes a toll on New

Yorks bats

RAPTOR FESTWinter festival celebratesbirds of prey

STRING OF MEMORIESA week at a DEC education camp can

change lives

CONTENTS

3

23

30

30


4/12

ITS LIKE CLIMBING A STAIRCASE. IM ON THE TOP

OF THE STAIRCASE, I LOOK BEHIND AND SEE THE

STEPS. THATS WHERE I WAS. WERE HERE RIGHT NOW.TOMORROW, WELL BE SOMEPLACE ELSE.

JEANNE MOREAU


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WINTER HIGH

W

e pull up to Chapel Pond in theheart of the Adirondack High

Peaks, and its cold-really cold! Te windbuffets the car gently; enough to make usnot want to open the door. My long-timeclimbing partner Bob Elsinger and I arespending the day climbing three of the

Adirondacks classic ice climbs, and this isthe last in our trifecta. Earlier we climbedMultiplication Gully in WilmingtonNotch, and Roaring Brook Falls, betweenChapel Pond and St. Huberts. Te climbs

were spectacular, and weve been enjoyingthe hauntingly beautiful Adirondack

winter day.

ools of the trade include ice screwsand carabiners. (Photo: Jung aek

Yoon)Donning climbing rope, ice axes,crampons, helmet, and an assortment ofnylon slings, carabiners and ice screws, weleave the car. Looking across the lake fromthe parking lot, the gully can clearly beseen as a wide channel of ice four hundredfeet high. Te wind rips across thesurface of the frozen lake, creating unique

designs of carved and swirled snow. Ourcrampons squeak on the snow with acomforting sound-squeaky snow meanscold and dry conditions, perfect for doingphysical activity in the winter.

At the base of the gully, we flake out(uncoil into a pile) the rope and I tie intoone end. Looking over the equipment,I reflect on how much some of thetechnology and the sport itself haveevolved over the years. Our ice axes, forexample, are short and have radicallydrooped picks-different from the standardstraight pick previously used. Te newdesign was introduced here after legendaryclimber Yvon Chouinard visited the

Adirondacks in 1969. Chouinard andfriends brought new equipment andtechniques that enabled climbers to ascend

what was formerly seen as impossiblesheets of ice. Tis changed the face of

American ice climbing. Suddenly climbslike this last route we planned for today(appropriately called Chouinards Gully)

were possible.

Once we are ready, Bob belays me (a safetytechnique whereby your climbing partnerlets out rope while you ascend, keepingready to hold the rope tight if you fall),and I start up the first pitch. Swinging

my tools into the ice and standing onthe front points of my crampons, I gainheight and place an ice screw into the ice.Tese tubular aluminum screws providegood protection in the solid ice, and I


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DRY ROPE

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ICE AXE

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BELT & HARNESS

$79.95

HELMET

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7/12

clip my rope to it. Well designed tubularice screws have made the sport relativelysafe, provided one has the knowledge andexperience to judge the quality of the ice.

I climb until the rope comes tight toBob, and then I build an anchor to belayhim up to me. Standing on a small rockledge, pulling in the rope with the warm

late afternoon light shining on me, I lookacross the valley to Giant Mountain. Itsbeautiful and despite the cold, its actuallyquite pleasant. Im sheltered from the

wind, and the body heat I generated fromclimbing is trapped in my puffy belay

jacket, keeping me comfortable.Climbing Roaring Brook Falls (south ofSt. Huberts), one of the best moderateice climbs in the Adirondacks.Bob meets and surpasses me, taking thegear from me as he continues to go up.

Now, I am belaying him from below ashe brings the rope up with him. In thisway, a two-person climbing team caneach share the thrill of leading a pitch.Te leader is responsible for choosingthe route up the ice, and placing theprotection that will keep them and theirpartner safe. Its a thrilling feeling, lookingbelow and seeing the rope sweeping downin graceful arcs, connected to your partnera hundred feet below. At the same time,you are very aware of the risks associated

with the sport. If you fall at any time, but

especially while leading, the danger is real.

Bob reaches the top, builds an anchor,and puts me on belay. As I climb up,more and more of the frosty Adirondackvalley comes into view. My body againheats up from the exertion, but I havelayered accordingly, which allows meto remove my belay jacket before I startclimbing and put it in a small stuff sackon my harness. Climbing ice involveslong periods of stationary activity,

followed by periods of intense physicalactivity, so you need to layer properly.

A mixed climb in the Catskills. (Photo:Greg Derda)Our climbs today, like just about all iceclimbs in New York State, are locatedon DEC-managed lands. Areas in the

Adirondacks, Catskills, Salmon RiverUnique Area, and a few other smallerareas as well, provide some of the bestice climbing around. In fact, climbersfrom all over the east coast come to testthemselves against the ice here. Most iceclimbers were skilled rock climbers beforeentering the realm of winter climbing.

As you can imagine, everything is alittle harder to do when it is five degrees

Fahrenheit. ying knots, wading throughdeep snow, keeping food, water, and digits

warm; these are all things that add to thealready exhilarating challenge of beinghigh up on a cliff.

Te Adirondacks offer the largestcollection of ice climbing routes in thestate. Here, you can experience everything

from short and easy roadside climbs,to overnight excursions that are highon a remote wilderness cliff where youare completely reliant on your skill andexperience to keep you safe. Te CatskillsMountains, a mere ninety-minute drivefrom New York City, are also festooned

with white lines in the winter. While theseice climbs tend to be shorter than, andnot as remote as, some of the Adirondackclimbs, what they lack in height theymake up for in sheer verticality. In

addition, the Catskills have a lot ofmixed climbing opportunity-a difficultcombination of ice and rock climbingthat tests a climbers skills in multipledisciplines.

Te Salmon River Falls Unique Area inOswego County is a relatively new spotthat ice climbers have discovered. Here,the Salmon River plunges over a shaleband and has formed a wide overhangingcirque of rock. In winter, the wet andmossy areas of seeping rock crystallize into

a fantastic pantheon of ice daggers andpillars, providing incredible opportunitiesfor the ice climber who is ready to take onits challenges.For me, ice climbing is a great way toexperience the amazing beauty of New

Yorks winter wonderland. Getting off thebeaten trail, truly immersing myself in thisformat that nature offers, and seeing theenvironment from a vertical perspective isdeeply rewarding. As Bob and I prepare to

walk off the top of the climb (we walk-or

hike-down, rather than rappel because itis safer, and often more efficient), we takeone more look at the spectacular vistabefore us.

wenty minutes later we are back in thecar, changing into clothes for the drivehome. I have to admit that Im lookingforward to sitting by the fireplace,

wiggling my toes and fingers against theradiant warmth. Its been an amazing day-

we climbed over 1,200 feet of ice; not badfor a short February day. Robert Mecus

CLIMBING SHOES

$129.95


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9/12

B A T S

B R I N KWhite nose disease takes a toll on New Yorks bats

on the


10/12

It is a calm, July night and youre sittingon your porch, watching twilight set.Tey sky is full of stars and every now andthen, something small and dark flashesacross your line of vision. Teres one! Itdips and darts in another direction. Nowtheres another, and another! Te night issimply riddled with the small, shadowyaerial acrobats.

o some, bats are those creepy, noisyinhabitants of Grandmas attic. o others,

theyre a Halloween mascot, invokingimages of Dracula. But despite whatyou might think, they are pretty amaz-ing creatures. And, theyre pretty neatto watch flying around at night. In fact,night is actually their feeding time. Batscan consume 50-75 percent of their ownbody weight in flying insects on a summernight! Pretty cool, huh?

But over the past few years, you mighthave noticed the summer skies are a little

emptier. New Yorks bats are in trouble,and have been since 2006, when biologistswith the Department of EnvironmentalConservation (DEC) first documenteda curious white fungus on the noses andmouths of bats in Hailes Cave in AlbanyCounty. Te unusual ailment (then-dubbed white nose syndrome) was pres-ent on dead and dying bats, and the deathtoll of several species rose quickly.

New research indicates the fungus isactually the cause of death and not just a

symptom of something greater, as previ-ously thought. Terefore, the ailmentis more like a disease, instead. Since itsoriginal discovery, it has spread to at leastseventeen states, from Maine to ennes-

see, and into four Canadian provinces.Te white fungus behind it is a memberof the group Geomyces: fungi that live insoil, water and air, and which are able toreproduce in cold temperatures like thosefound in bat hibernacula.

Biologists first noticed something waswrong when bats prematurely left theircaves during winter hibernation. Gener-ally, hibernating bats have enough storedfat reserves to carry them through the

winter when their body temperaturesand metabolisms are low. However, whenawake, bats body temperatures are similarto ours and so they burn through their fatreserves at a high rate. Research suggeststhe white nose disease causes hibernatingbats to wake more frequently and perhapsfor longer periods of time when there isno readily available source of food-insectsarent plentiful until the following spring.Te bats then either starve to death or flyout of the site, presumably in a desper-

ate attempt to find food. Tis leads topredation or succumbing to the winterelements.

It seems bats are the primary vector forspreading the disease, as it has appeared inpreviously unknown caves or in many ar-eas where no person has been since before2006. Since bats often hibernate closetogether, bat-to-bat transmission is easy.However, humans may also contribute tospreading the fungus. In fact, it is believedhumans first transported the fungus from

a cave in Europe or Asia. Te same fungaldisease has been identified there, but itdoes not affect native bats. Its assumedthose bats have learned to adapt. Its alsobeen suggested that a live, infected bat


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was unintentionally transported across theAtlantic, but its very unlikely it made thetrip itself, so human transport seems thelikeliest possibility.

Six species of bats that hibernate in NewYork have been affected by the whitenose disease: northern, little browns, bigbrowns, tri-colored, Indiana, and eastern

small-footed bats. Northern bats seem tobe the hardest hit in New York, with loss-es of about 98 percent from pre-diseaselevels! Little browns were the most com-mon species in the state; they were oneof two species commonly found roostingin houses and barns. (Te other is the bigbrown.) Little browns have declined by90 percent, and so comprise the greatestnumber of bats that have died.

Big browns are the least affected of New

Yorks bats, as they spend most of thewinter in buildings. Tis makes themhard to count, but seems to offer a sort ofprotection. Tis species is still abundantin summer and is now the most commonspecies in the state. So far there isnt areason to think that the population hasdrastically declined, if at all.

Te tri-colored bat was uncommon evenbefore white nose hit, and has sincedeclined by 90 percent. Te federally

endangered Indiana bat has declined by70 percent. Te eastern small-footed bat

was so rare before white nose that it was acandidate for federal endangered speciesprotection. It has been impacted to someextent by the disease, but because of itsrarity, its hard to know to what degree.

Its difficult to judge what the futurebrings in terms of white nose disease. Itdoes not appear to be stopping, but thereare many factors that may work in our

bats favor. For instance, some bat speciesnaturally forage during the winter, whichallows them to replenish any extinguishedfat reserves if they were to be affected by

white nose. Also, tree bats migrate southfor the winter. Te silver hair bat, a typeof tree bat, may stay over in caves, but thechances of them picking up the diseaseare less likely.

Tough wide-scale solutions have beenoffered, such as disinfecting caves andtreating each bat individually, perhapsthe best thing we can do to help is to takeprecautionary measures. Disinfecting anentire site, for instance, puts other species(sometimes endangered) at risk; treating

individual bats isnt a very practical orreliable way to help. What we can do isfollow strict decontamination proceduresset in place for those visiting caves so thedisease isnt accidentally spread to othersites. Not venturing into cave sites closedto prevent the spread of disease is also animportant rule to follow.

Many people also wonder if bat boxescan help. Tough its hard to say (as notall species of bats use boxes), properlyconstructed and placed boxes couldperhaps help some bats that manage tosurvive the winter get off to a better startin the spring breeding season. Bat boxesprovide an alternative location to treesor in buildings for bats to have young.(Search for the How to Build a Bat Boxbrochure on DECs website at www.dec.ny.gov, and check out the February 2008

Conservationist for more information, aswell.)

Also, though it does happen, its unusualfor a wildlife disease to cause speciesextinction. Recently, some evidence evensuggests the decline of little brown batsin affected hibernation sties may havestopped! Its a tiny, but positive sign. Inthe meantime, numerous New Englandstates, including New York, are lookingto add many bat species to state endan-gered species lists. Te federal govern-

ment is looking into the possibility, aswell.

Our best hope is that bats will developimmunity to the disease. Even now, someevidence suggests that some bats may berelatively unaffected, either because ofan inherent protective benefit from theirown immune system or a tendency toengage in more solitary behaviors, or acombination of both. Whatever the case,scientists hope that those bats will pass

down the traits to their offspring; thenthe decline may halt and populationsmight be able to recover.

So for now we must hope that bats willbe able to pull through on their own.Until then, researchers and biologists willcontinue to study the disease, and lookfor answers. Perhaps the rest of us willkeep looking in the summer sky, waitingfor the nighttime acrobats.

Jenna Kerwin is the staff writer for Con-servationist. Carl Herzog is a biologist

with DECs Wildlife Diversity Unit.Jenna Kerwin and Carl Herzog


12/12

LOVE THY NATURE

#GREENERPLANET

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